March 21, 2011

I try to keep loose Pantone chips in an envelope for future projects, but these nice colors escaped and attached themselves to my file cabinet.

If you happen to own a Pantone chip book or can beg a few chips from someone you know, here's how to whip up some little candy-like magnets.

Cut small pieces of bookboard or other thick cardboard with an X-acto knife. (Bookboard is likely available at your local art store or PaperSource.) Make the pieces exactly the size of the Pantone chips. Then paint the edges white; I used acrylic paint for this.

Attach the chip to the cardboard. I tried using wet glue, but it made the chip curl. So instead I covered the back of each chip with double-stick tape which worked great.

Then cover the face of the chip with paper glaze. It dries with a clear, raised glass-like surface. There are a few products on the market; I used Aleene's Paper Glaze. Let it dry overnight.

Finally, attach a magnet to the back. I used a roll of self-adhesive magnet material, but you could use something stronger, or cut up those promotional magnets you get sometimes from companies.

I LOVE these! I have no Pantone chips but have a lot of paint chips. I bet it could work the same way. What a good idea to use the glaze coating--gives it a very nice finished look. Thanks (as always) for the great ideas!

Jess this project is sooooo awesome. Thank you so much for the inspiration :). I have a question about the glaze, is this the same as CRYSTAL LACQUER? I too want to use it for paper so I want to make sure I get it right :).

Mayi, I'm not familiar with Crystal Lacquer, but after Googling it just now, I'd say it looks like the same thing. You could always test a little bit on a piece of paper or try it first on any extra Pantone chip that's not as great a color as orange. :)

What a great idea...I love the way the paper glaze gives it the shine...will have to try it out.Have had paper glaze blottle laying around for a long time now...will have to put it to use now.http://nothingbetterthancrafting.blogspot.com/

Kristen from Apple Love- You said you have a book of chips and you would be willing to part with a few??? I would love to do this project and am hoping to track a few down. Would you mind emailing me brookeage(at)msn(dot)com.

What a great idea! I like it so much that I decided to make a blogpost about it (If you want to read it it's: http://a-silver-cloud.blogspot.com/2011/04/great-idea-diy-pantone-magnets.html)And now I'll go and find my paint chips. Thank you!

Yeah, the chip books are a couple hundred dollars, so unless someone is a design professional, they likely won't have one. You could check eBay, or else Pantone sells individual replacement pages, too.

I have been obsessed with making these since I saw this post a few weeks ago! I couldn't find Aleene's Paper Glaze so I subbed with ArtDeco Triple Thick glaze. It was good; glossy like in the tutorial pics - but NOT GOOD for pinks and reds!! It washes them out to an orange colour! A great colour, of course, but what's the point in a Pantone magnet if it's not the right Pantone? lol I finally managed to track down the paper glaze and am excited to finish this project!

I just made these - they are adorable. Mine took about 2 whole days to dry, but love the shiny look. I followed your instructions except used spray adhesive mount instead of double sided tape - but my corners are kind of coming up so the tape is probably better. I didn't have old chips but just designed some look-alikes using Pantones in Illustrator. Love the way they look in my office - thanks for the article!

@Kristin, does the offer for some Pantone chips still stand? I would love to make a few of these magnets! :o) @Jess, i know there are a lot of replacement pages you can get from Pantone- are there any that you recommend? Great project!! Thank you!

These are amazing! My sister works at a paint shop and they have specials on certain colors from time to time but it was a pain to make window displays, they did this so now they have three magnets up at all times, on sale, soon to be on sale, and most popular.

Love this idea, always been a bit of a color nut as you can see, always wanted to have that job of naming colors for some major design company or something, this will have to do for now might add my own names though :-) Thanks x

Like JeneDawn, I wish I had discovered this sooner! I'm afraid I don't have any Pantone chips—is anyone (that's still subscribed to this comment feed) willing to send me a few of their leftover chips? Otherwise, maybe a trip to a paint store is in order for paint swatches =)

Thank you for this tutorial! These are very cool! Must try these when I get home from travelling :)I also shared it my blog: http://whiterabbittreasures.blogspot.com/2012/07/etsy-treasury-magnetic-diy-magnets.html

These really are beautiful! I have a question, though. Why leave the label on at the bottom? Why not cut that off and just have the color? Is that bad? I think it would look better without it but I figured you probably have a reason for keeping it on there. Just curious. Great project!

Hi Cheryl,Yep, these chips are iconic in the graphic design profession. We use them all the time and they're recognizable by the Pantone name and color number at the bottom. In fact, Pantone has licensed their images to tons of manufacturers, keeping the block of color at the top with the white area at the bottom. Some examples:http://www.seletti.it/pantone/pantone_xmas_ball.htmhttp://www.popdeluxe.net/pantone-mug-single.html

So it's fun (for me) to keep it on there since it's sort of a graphic design inside joke. But you certainly could cut it off if you like! Or use any other kind of paint swatch.

I don't have any Pantone chips, we just have the swatch books at work, so I was wondering if someone could tell me the dimensions (inc the white space) so I can recreate some in Illustrator - I know they won't be authentic, but hopefully they'll look almost as good! :-)